May 19, 2010

McGuinty's war on the sick and the poor

Reuel S. Amdur

The McGuinty government in Ontario has announced that it will end the special diet supplement for social assistance recipients with special needs.

On
top of the miserly amounts that the clients of Ontario Works and the Ontario
Disability Support Program receive, the special diet allowance provides up to
$250 a month for people with various health conditions,

To
replace the special diet allowance under the Ministry of Community and Social
Services, McGuinty will introduce a new health supplement under the Ministry of
Health.

While
it is unclear exactly what will be included, statements from the government
indicate that it will be for acute conditions. That focus will leave out
chronic conditions, like diabetes and AIDS.

As
well as being cruel, this move will put sick people at greater risk.

As
Michael Jacoby, a customer service representative with the Canadian Diabetes
Association, put it: “If the criteria for the new supplement are too narrow for
people with diabetes to qualify, the savings derived from retiring the SDA
[special diet allowance] will be completely negated by the significant costs
emanating from the expected increase of secondary complications from the
disease, including heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, and lower
limb amputation. For example, a single episode of acute myocardial infarction
resulting from diabetes has been estimated to cost over $180,000 (2003
figures), and treatment of end-stage renal disease has been estimated to cost
over $63,000 (also 2003 figures) per year.”

The
Ontario government argues that this move is necessary in the light of the
recent provincial Auditor General’s report, which indicates that many people
are receiving the supplement inappropriately.

However,
the report does not address the reason for the supposedly inappropriate
receipt. Might the desperate demand for the supplement have something to do
with the fact that the McGuinty government has refused to reverse the 21.6% cut
that Mike Harris made to Ontario Works rates?

Ontario
governments of all stripes have refused to evaluate social assistance rates to
insure that they meet the needs of recipients to live healthy lives in
conditions of dignity and decency.

No
evaluation by home economists and nutritionists wanted, it seems.

However,
Professor Valerie Tarasuk of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the
University of Toronto has looked at the question of adequacy, and the result of
her studies is clear: Ontario’s social assistance rates are quite simply
inadequate to provide basic nutrition.

McGuinty
is less concerned with insuring adequate nutrition for the individuals and
families receiving social assistance than he is in cracking down on individuals
who have managed to stretch a point and receive the supplement. However, moving
the program from one ministry to another just to cut these people off is hardly
the answer.

Special diets for social assistance recipients already
require a physician's determination of need. If the government is concerned that
some of the decisions are incorrect, Ontario could designate specific physicians
to establish eligibility for special diets.

In
any case, the behaviour of this government toward social assistance
recipients—Ontario’s certified poor—makes Dalton McGuinty’s commitment to
poverty reduction a farce.